DmC: Devil May Cry

DmC: Devil May Cry is a video game developed by Ninja Theory and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game is not related to the events that occurred in the numbered games as it is a reboot of the franchise. The console versions were released on January 15th, 2013 in North America, Australia and Europe and January 18th in Japan. The PC version was released on January 25th. DmC includes an additional DLC chapter, Vergil's Downfall, which chronicles the story of Vergil, as a playable character, after the events of the main game.

The Chronicles of Vergil
The Chronicles of Vergil is a two part comic series tie-in that is a prequel to the DmC game, whose story revolves around the initial relationship between Kat and Vergil. Kat, who does not understand her psychic powers, is tracked and found by Vergil at a Virility factory. With Vergil's arival, Kat is arrested and held under suspicion of aiding the "masked terrorist." Now dragged into Vergil's schemes, Kat will have to help Vergil find information about his long-lost brother, Dante.

DmC: Devil May Cry
DmC: Devil May Cry is a reboot disconnected from the continuity of the classic series while exploring similar themes. It starts at the beginning of Dante's exploits as a demon hunter, and depicts his growth into a figure similar to his classic counterpart.

The story takes place in Limbo City, a contemporary metropolis secretly controlled from the shadows by powerful demons, manipulating humanity through the comforts of life. Living on the fringes of the brainwashed society is Dante, a disenfranchised youth at odds with the demons who constantly hunt him and have made his life a living hell for as long as he could remember. The game's events are set into motion when Dante is taking two women from Devil's Dalliance back to his trailer home at the Bellevue Pier. After a raucous night of booze-fueled promiscuity, Dante wakes up to a young woman warning him that he's in danger. As Dante opens the door, the girl explains that he left a trail for a Hunter Demon to follow, and Dante is subsequently dragged into Limbo. After acrobatically getting dressed, Dante is guided through the Bellevue Pier's carnival by the girl, who introduces herself as Kat, a psychic medium who can see him in Limbo. Upon defeating his demon pursuer, it referred to him as "Son of Sparda," to Dante's confusion, and taunted the young man that he had been found. After returning to the human dimension, Dante is asked by Kat to come with her and meet her boss. Reluctantly, Dante accepts the proposal to repay the assistance Kat gave him at the pier.

Along the way, Kat explains that she is part of The Order, a rogue group led by who Dante calls "that masked freak on the 'net," hell-bent on exposing the demons to the world and releasing Limbo City from their clutches. The leader of The Order introduces himself as Vergil, and asks Dante about his past, which he remembers very little of thanks to a bout of meningitis when he was younger. Vergil explains that he too had lost his memory, but the instances that cause their amnesia was something only humans suffered from. Vergil explains that Dante is exceedingly important, and with his help The Order can bring down the demons. Dante scoffs at the idea, but Vergil pleads with Dante to at least let him show Dante their shared past.

Vergil, Kat, and Dante arrive at Paradise, a dilapidated mansion outside of the city that seemingly holds the key to Dante's past. There, he discovers a portrait of a man named Sparda, which he deduces to be his father. Along the way, Dante's sees apparitions of his youth, playing games with another boy named Vergil, coming to the realization that he and the white-haired man are brothers. Further investigating the mansion, Dante finds a portrait of a red-haired woman named Eva, whom he fondly remembers as his loving mother. Coming to terms with all he's learned, Dante sees more apparitions, this time of Eva screaming that "they found us" and running from armed assailants. As Limbo starts to tear apart the simulacrum of Paradise, Dante can do little but escape back to the gateway Kat made for him. Once back in the human dimension, Dante requests more information from his brother, Vergil.

Vergil obliges, taking Dante to an old playground within the city limits. Dante remembers the area as a place that Eva used to take the brothers. Looking over graffiti-slathered walls, Vergil explains how a war between angels and demons has been raging for generations, and during that time, their father Sparda had fallen in love with an angel, Eva. Eva soon gave birth to the twin boys, which infuriated the king of the demonic realm and Sparda's blood brother, Mundus. Having created a Nephilim, Sparda and Eva created the only race of beings that could slay Mundus, so he attacked and killed Eva, tearing out her heart. Dante watches as his mother gave her life to protect her family, but Vergil was nowhere to be seen, so Mundus only knew of one Nephilim. As Sparda escaped with Vergil and Dante, he wiped their memories and split them up so they could attempt to live normal lives. Vergil was adopted by a wealthy family that provided for him, but Dante was unfortunately taken to a demon-run orphanage, St Lamia, where he was abused for much of his early life. Sparda returned to Mundus to prevent him from following after the children, and was sentenced to eternal torture and captivity.

Recapping their destiny, Dante asks how they can end Mundus' reign, and avenge their fallen family, but before Vergil can explain more, a Spotter finds the brothers and pulls Dante into Limbo. After fighting his way to a gate Kat made, Vergil explains to Dante the more insidious side of Mundus' actions, and outlines the plans to take out the Raptor News Network for its demonic propaganda, and the Virility Plant that brews the spiked energy drink of the same name. During Kat and Dante's journey to the Virility factory, Dante is once again pulled into the demonic dimension. As he fights his way through the twisted streets, he learns a bit more about Kat, who was taught much of her psychic abilities with Vergil's help. Once they arrive at the Virility Plant, Kat guides Dante from the mixing room and to a rift where she can spray paint a glyph to bring Dante into Limbo. From Limbo, Dante makes his way back to the mixing room, where he finds grotesque tubes feeding into the mixing tanks that people sampled cups of Virility from.

Kat helps Dante descend to the bottom of the mixing room's center air duct, where he soon confronts the "secret ingredient," a disgusting, monstrous slug-like Succubus demon hooked up to the same cords and tubes that lined the walls of the factory. During his battle with the Succubus, Dante systematically removes the demon's intubation until she falls into a river of what could only be years of her own vomit, where Dante then forces her into an industrial fan at the back of her chamber, which promptly tears her apart.

Some time later, Dante, Kat, and Vergil stand on an overpass with a clear view of the Raptor News Tower, Dante's next target. Using one of Kat's glyphs on the bridge, Dante plunges into the water below, coming out in an upside-down realm, walking along the underside of the structure. On his way to the tower, Dante is obstructed from his straight path, making his way through a penitentiary that confines human souls, and ends up coming across a helpless demon, Phineas, who lost his one good cybernetic eye to harpies. In return for retrieving Phineas' eye, the blind demon offers to help Dante. Dante follows the harpies through the subway system to their nest, where he snatches up Phineas' eye, kills the demons there, and returns to the blind prophet.

While walking with Phineas, Dante learns that Phineas was imprisoned by Mundus over a century ago, and that other Nephilim have come before the Sons of Sparda. One in particular, Assiel, did much for the world before her demise. Guiding Dante, Phineas helps the young Nephilim unleash a hidden power within him, the Devil Trigger, and then questions his purpose of targeting Barbas and Raptor News. Dante divulges his intentions of killing the demon king, and Phineas in turn divulges to Dante that Lilith, Mundus' concubine, is pregnant with an heir. Dante is unsure of what to make of Phineas' commands of killing the child, but he thanks Phineas for his help, and continues on to confront Bob Barbas in the Raptor News Tower. Dante is left pondering Phineas' parting words, "When Mundus is defeated, who will take his place?"

Within the Raptor News Tower, Dante and Barbas face off, with the demon badmouthing the young Nephilim and riling him up, even breaking up the fight to show Dante a newscast that local enforcement agencies found Kat and the ringleader of The Order, and were mobilizing on their headquarters. An angry Dante subdues Barbas with bullets from his twin pistols, and then quickly hurries back to The Order.

Dante gets pulled into Limbo upon his arrival at The Order's headquarters, just as SWAT teams are entering the compound. Dante watches in horror as the armed forces mercilessly kill any members of the Order they come across, while specifically searching for Kat. When Dante finally reaches Kat's location, she guides him down to the server room where Vergil is holed up. In the server room, Vergil helps Kat to expunge terabytes of data and back it up to a secure location, while Dante fights off incoming waves of demons. When all is done, Kat sets up the headquarters to self-destruct, and Vergil intends to leave her behind while he and Dante escape from Limbo. Dante stays behind to comfort Kat, instructing her on how to endure being taken into custody just as SWAT teams swarm through the server room, shooting Kat in the arm, and then beating her into unconsciousness as Dante watches helplessly from Limbo. With Kat dragged away, Dante meets up with Vergil.

Some time later, Vergil receives a video message of Mundus requesting to trade Kat for the Nephilim, Dante. Vergil is surprised to know that Mundus still doesn't know of his existence as a Nephilim as well, but nonetheless denies Dante the opportunity of saving Kat's life. Dante then offers up the information about Lilith and her unborn demon child, and the two brothers come to an agreement of kidnapping Lilith in exchange for bringing Mundus away from Silversacks Towers and possibly saving Kat. Dante returns to Devil's Dalliance and attempts to engage Lilith when she drags him into Limbo, and forces him to run through a Reality TV-like gauntlet in order to reach her. As Dante meets with Lilith face to face, she mutters of her intentions of bringing Dante's corpse to Mundus to earn favor, and even brings out their demon spawn to help battle the Nephilim.

Even as a gargantuan demon, the newborn and its mother are no match for Dante, and she agrees to go along quietly as long as they don't hurt the child, as Lilith says she's nothing without it. Near the shipping docks, Dante and Vergil set up their trade with SWAT for Lilith in exchange for Kat. However, during the trade, Vergil sets his scope on Lilith and blows a hole in her abdomen, killing the demon spawn, and then shooting Lilith herself in the head. In the ensuing chaos, Vergil and Dante subdue the SWAT team and save Kat. Unfortunately, Mundus watched the exchange take place, and became enraged knowing his child was killed. In response, Mundus drew power from the Hell Gate in his office, and unleashed a powerful wave of Malice that destroys most of Limbo's shipping district where the exchange took place. Dante, pulled into Limbo, runs through the crumbling streets saving Vergil and Kat in their escaping car from debris that falls into their path.

Back at the safehouse, Kat informs the twins on what she learned while being held captive in the Silver Sacks Tower, where she used her astral projection to snoop around the grounds in Limbo. With this information, the remnants of The Order make one final attempt to reach Mundus, with Dante storming in through the front doors while Vergil sneaks in from the back, helping Dante reach higher up in the tower by taking down security protocols. Near the apex of the tower, Dante finally squares off against Drekavac a final time, routing the demon before moving on. Meeting up with Vergil, the two make their way through the Furnace of Souls, a desolate space of fiery captive souls and crag. At the top, Dante helps Vergil reactivate the generators that power the vault to Mundus' office, and once open, the two being the final phase of their plan.

Dante, tasked with drawing Mundus away from the Hell Gate, infuriates the demon king with snide comments about demon-kind and particularly Mundus' child. Mundus blasts Dante out of the office, and then rushes into him, the two of them flying out of Silversacks and onto a nearby roof. With his chance upon him, Vergil uses the Yamato to close the Hell Gate, cutting off Mundus from his immortality, and capturing his demonic soul in the human vessel Kyle Ryder. However, Mundus is still a formidable opponent, and attempts to tear out Dante's heart until he is stabbed in the back by Vergil. Mundus falls off the roof and onto a car, but instead of perishing, energy swarms around his body, and debris gathers together, forming a colossal entity of Malice, concrete, and iron. Together, the Nephilim work to take down Mundus, and expose the soul-locked body of Kyle Ryder at its core. With Mundus defeated and the Hell Gate closed, there's is nothing left to sustain Limbo, and the demonic dimension deteriorates, and demons are left in plain sight for the entire world to see.

With social media and news organizations buzzing with recent events, Dante, Kat, and Vergil look out over the city from what's left of the playground the brothers frequented as children. Vergil thanks Dante for all his help, and begins to outline his plan for ruling over humankind, which both Dante and Kat disagree with, having thought they were fighting for their freedom. Dante deduces that Vergil was only after freedom for the Nephilim, so they could live without fear of reprisal from a demon king, and Vergil claims that humans are frail, like children, and that humanity needs protection from itself. The only way to ensure that is for the Nephilim brothers to rule over the lesser race. Vergil, astounded at Dante's reaction, claims that it was them, the two Nephilim that save the humans. Angry, Dante emphasizes that without a human - Kat - they wouldn't have been able to free mankind, and would have failed miserably. Vergil states that if Dante wants no part in ruling the humans, then he should stand aside and let his brother rule alone. Dante lashes out, yelling that he didn't help his brother defeat Mundus so he could take his place, where suddenly Phineas' parting words made all too much sense.

Dante can't allow his own flesh and blood to rule over the people he had just freed, and Vergil can't let his brother obstruct his bid for domination. With the two brother's at odds, they cross swords. As the two Nephilim battled, Dante continually pleaded with his brother to reconsider, to no avail. In the end, Dante had no choice but to unleash the devil inside him and run Vergil through the heart with Rebellion. Unsure of what to do, Dante forced Vergil to the ground, impaling him with his sword until Kat begged him to let him live. Sheathing his sword, Dante helps Vergil to his feet, and declares that the world is under his protection. Vergil responds that his brother has chosen the wrong side, and that he'll never be human. Opening a dimensional rift with Yamato, Vergil mutters "I loved you, brother" before disappearing through the portal.

Dante is left questioning who he really is, and Kat succinctly replies that he is Dante&mdash;"nothing more and nothing less." With the world under his protection, Dante has many trials ahead, eradicating the scourge of demons that now exist among humankind, and coming to grips with what it means to be a Nephilim, and a Son of Sparda. The final scene shows a quick close-up of Dante's eyes, which flash with demonic power.

Vergil's Downfall
Vergil's Downfall is an epilogue chapter to DmC that is available as downloadable content. It tells the story of what happens to Vergil after his battle with Dante.

Fatally wounded from his battle with Dante, Vergil makes it back to Paradise but staggers to his mother's grave. As he rails against his failure, he succumbs to his injuries and collapses, falling into Hell. He soon becomes aware that his pendant is missing, and also hears a message from his departed mother that he can still find salvation despite his death. Although he attempts to follow her directions, he is cut down by the demons guarding the exit and falls further into Hell, where meets an apparition of himself named Hollow Vergil; Hollow Vergil is wearing Vergil's missing pendant, although Vergil does not appear to notice. The apparition chastises Vergil for his weakness and reveals a large disembodied heart which he claims is Vergil's; he charges Vergil with "correcting" the three holes in that heart.

As Vergil goes back to the rest of Hell, he finds what appears to be Kat and saves her from the Imprisoner who was chasing her. However, she reveals herself as nothing but a demonic apparition of his former friend, and taunts him by playing upon his anger at Kat choosing Dante over him; overcome by wrath, he slays the girl, "correcting" the first hole. Vergil then comes across an apparition of his brother, who immediately begins taunting him for being weaker and for trusting Dante. Seemingly unaware that this is not the real Dante, Vergil chases him down with the intent of slaying him as well, and eventually corners him at a replica of Assiel, where he slays the demon and takes his pendant. Frustrated when the pendant does not allow him to use his Devil Trigger, he is convinced by his doppelganger to resolve the last hole in his heart by hunting down his mother,, and taking revenge on her for allegedly favoring Dante. Vergil finds his mother, this time the real article, being chased by another Imprisoner that he eventually tracks down and slays. Just as Eva expresses relief at being saved, he presents "Dante"'s pendant and claims to have killed his brother, filling her with grief. Although she explains that she always loved both her sons equally, Vergil coldly ignores her and returns to Hollow Vergil, having now completely discarded his heart and become dedicated to achieving more power.

Finally realizing that Hollow Vergil is in possession of his pendant, Vergil attacks his doppelganger and manages to defeat him, taking back the pendant and subjugating the apparition as part of his own soul. With his powers restored and his compassion gone, Vergil is returned back to where he entered Hell; he tries once again to exit Hell and this time succeeds, coming to where he originally collapsed on his mother's grave. He is approached by a horde of demons, but when they recognize his acceptance of his demonic nature, they quickly bow down to their new demonic lord.

Development and Gameplay Mechanics
While the idea of gameplay remains similar to its predecessors, DmC: Devil May Cry has several changes that set it apart. The E3 2011 trailer shown after a year of silence revealed other aspects such as finishing moves and close-ups similar to Ninja Theory's previous game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. The trailer also showed off some slight changes to Dante's design from the TGS 2010 reveal, like a longer coat, a less gaunt physique, a slightly different haircut, and a facial structured modeled after Dante's actor Tim Phillipps.

Dante heads into battle with his sword Rebellion, which can now transform into an axe, a scythe, and a grappling hook (that works much like Nero's Snatch ability), and a few other weapons. This allows for Dante to have access to all of his weaponry, similar to Devil May Cry 4, which the player can cycle through the D-Pad.

The the new Dante is a Nephilim (half-demon/half-angel), instead of being a half-human, half-demon hybrid. Because of this change in lineage, game mechanics were also changed to reflect this, utilizing the trigger buttons to access angelic or demonic aligned weapons.

The game also has a much heavier emphasis on the environment, where the city itself is one of Dante's greatest adversaries. With roads giving way to nothingness, and alleyways closing off, Dante must fight not only the demons that appear, but also Limbo itself. This creates hectic obstacle course sequences that involve jumping, air dashing, and grappling through areas, along with some battlefields containing hazards that Dante must avoid, but can also exploit.

Combat
Combat differs slightly from previous games. There are no Styles, but new attack patterns can be initiated by holding down the left or right trigger buttons. The game still uses a time-based input mechanic for combos in line with previous Devil May Cry games. The game also no longer uses a "hard lock" system for Dante's attacks. As such, the game utilizes a proprietary "Launch" button for "Lock-On + Back" attacks like High Time and included "Forward + Forward" motions for "Lock-On Forward" attacks such as Stinger. High-level-play abilities like  Jump Canceling   even make a return, as well as   Just Charges. With the use of a soft lock, Dante will often attack whatever is closest in front of him, but the lock-on the game uses is easily overridden by tilting the Left Stick towards a desired target, while also being able to use a Target Switch key for long-range targeting. Another new inclusion to the combat is the use of  Input Buffering, which makes it marginally easier to perform continuous attacks.

Orbs are once again rewarded for dispatching enemies. Red Orbs reprise their role as the currency used to pruchase items, while White Orbs are now accumulated and used to upgrade Dante's abilities and weapons. The Style meter also saw an improvement, now listing a score along with the moves incorporated into the combos, giving the player more feedback. The music itself will even begin as a slight background beat, becoming more and more prominent, bringing in guitar riffs and even vocals as the player's performance reaches a higher Style grade, just as the older system would reach from D up to A and even SSS. Similarly to the third and fourth installments in the main series, the Style meter in DmC will retain the currently highest full rank the player has reached until the battle is over, or he is struck by an attack. When the player reaches S Rank and higher, they also receive a boost to their speed, further pushing players to do their best to gain the upper-hand in battle. The style ranks are also different, titled after the more aggressive tone the game sets:
 * Dirty!
 * Cruel!
 * Brutal!
 * Anarchic!
 * Savage!
 * SSadistic!!
 * SSSensational!!!

Enemies come in a variety of shapes, sizes and weights, and while many incarnations will broadcast their attacks well before they strike, their AI is slightly different, based in part on how the player is fighting. Most enemies seek to surround and flank Dante, with some grounded enemies standing at the edge of Rebellion's basic reach. The demons also often attack when Dante is in middle of a combo, aiming more to interrupt his attacks and reduce the player's Style grade. Enemies also become more aggressive the higher the Style grade is, with A rank and above seeing them attack more frequently.

Some enemies can also only be harmed by specific types of weapons, based on their color, e.g. a Hell Knight can only be damaged by Demon weapons, while a Ghost Rage can only be affected by Angel Weapons. This restricts players to using only those specific weapons, along with the applicable version of Ophion, but also pushes them to generate typified "color combos" that still yield high Style, and thus greater rewards.

Pre-order Bonuses
Different bonuses were offered by retailers when you reserved a copy of the game. By pre-ordering the game at different retailers, players received the "Samurai Pack," "Bone Pack," or "Gold Pack," which provided new skins for Dante's weapons and certain game-enhancing abilities. These bonuses have since been available for purchase as Downloadable Content.

Vergil's Downfall
Aside from playing as Vergil throughout the content, Vergil's Downfall features additional hidden items to collect, two new enemies and a new boss, and has a leaderboard with which to compete with others. The content also comes with four difficulty levels, new combos, and new locations.

Vergil uses many of his traditional skills, including several based on Slash Dimension, Air Trick, and Summoned Swords, and is able to use Devil Trigger to generate a doppelganger.

Music
The music for the game is divided into three albums. The first, the official soundtrack, features both and  while the other two feature tracks performed by Noisia and Combichrist respectively.

Pre release
Capcom handed down directives to Ninja Theory specifically to change Dante's looks. Originally, Ninja Theory's redesign was still somewhat similar to the "classic Dante," but Capcom told them to keep going further away from that design, even though they expected this to create a negative response. Indeed, the initial trailer was received negatively by many fans, primarily for the drastic redesign of Dante and overall attitude that the project director had toward the series. Concerns were also voiced about this version of Dante apparently having acquired a smoking habit, in contrast to the old Dante whose creator, Hideki Kamiya, deemed "too cool to smoke". The new Dante was tweaked in response to some of these complaints, losing the smoking habit, and changing from a lanky, quiet character to a more muscular and sardonic figure.

Meanwhile, the use of the and not the MT Framework again sparked outrage from certain fans, citing that its use of a locked 30 frames per second would diminish the stylish, fast-paced gameplay the series was known for and would diminish the skill required to play the game at a "pro" level by rendering "Just" inputs impossible. However, with so much moving onscreen at once, running on 60 fps would incur undesirable slow-down, so the decision to lower the framerate had to be made. Capcom stated they and Ninja Theory would work together in order to try to give the game the feel and speed of a 60 fps Devil May Cry.

Post release
DmC: Devil May Cry received relatively high scores from critics, with Metacritic granting it an 85 out of 100. Highly polarized user ratings average out to a score  of 4.8. Overall sales of the game were decent and, although the game was the #1 seller in Japan during its first week on the market, Capcom reduced its initial sales target for the game by 40%, from 2 million to 1.2 million, which it nearly met with Capcom-reported sales of just over 1.1 million.

Release
Vergil's Downfall DLC can be purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace for 720 points, and through the PlayStation Network and Steam for $8.99. It was released on March 5, 2013 for American PSN and Steam accounts, and on March 6, 2013 for XBOX Live accounts as well as European PSN and Steam accounts. Those who pre-ordered DmC: Devil May Cry through GameStop or EBgames were given a code for a free download of Vergil's Downfall, but due to technical issues, the system for converting these codes into Steam, XBOX Live, or PSN codes was not active until the evening of March 6th.

Bugs
The game is not without its share of bugs that can pop up from time to time, and while these are not inevitabilities that every player will come across in their time with the game, these are the most prominent ones seen. The frequency, however, remains questionable.

DmC: Devil May Cry
In the battle against Vergil, the Doppleganger will sometimes fail to generate, making it impossible to finish the battle.

In the battle against Vergil, if you use the grapple when he is low on health, and is in mid air, he will float in the air, therefore making the battle impossible. (only tested on PC version of DmC)

In the battle against Vergil, when he spawns the Doppleganger and begins to heal, if you kill him without using Devil Trigger, Vergil regenerates all health and becomes invulerable to all damage, making the battle impossible to finish. (confirmed on 360, and PC)

Sometimes during random fights, the game fails to process the end of battles, making Dante stuck locked in the room with the battle music still playing until the player restarts from the last checkpoint. (All Versions of the Game)

On PS3, at the end of chapter one, the game can freeze during the cutscenes, forcing the player to restart the system.

Vergil's Downfall
If Vergil is staggered in combat by a Witch, it is sometimes possible for his staggering animation to get caught, causing him to continuously "swim" through the air, invulnerable to damage. If this happens, the controls become useless, and the animation cannot be escaped unless an enemy manages to damage Vergil correctly, knocking him out of the loop. In addition, Witches will sometimes load with their shields invisible.

Falling off the edge of platforms can sometimes result in Vergil walking on air. The falling and then resetting on solid ground never occurs, and the player is left to wander the air space without being able to get back up and continue.

The Stats screen displays Health Cross Fragments out of nineteen, despite there being twenty to collect.